Wow! What a full week and a half. ‘Tis the season to be busy. The day after Thanksgiving we dug out our Christmas decorations. Our tree is up and most of our rooms have a festive touch. However, we haven’t even gotten to the outdoor decorations, and I’m not sure we will this week either.
It’s been pretty cold, at least it feels like it has been cooler than normal for this time of year. We’ve even seen a few snow flurries which prompted the kids to wear their pajamas inside out hoping for a snow day.
ANGEL ALERT! A lot of our free time since Thanksgiving has been taken up with getting ready for the children’s Christmas musical, Angel Alert, at church. We were involved with some of the set decoration as well as setting up all the extra A/V equipment that goes with a production like this. When we weren’t at church doing that we were at church for rehearsal. I think Thursday night was the only time we weren’t doing something with the musical. (Well, there was Monday, but we had Scouts.)
The kids put on two performance, last night and this morning. I must say they did a great job. They really sang out and those with parts played them well. One first grader enthusiastically shouted the first song Friday night. He got one of the lines wrong, stopped and shouted, “Sorry, Mrs. Vicki!” (Vicki Schultz directed the choir) and went right back to singing. Nate was part of the preschool choir. Ben and Jenna sang in the older kids choir. Jenna even had a solo part, the first verse of O Holy Night. She sang it so well. Vicki and I were really proud of all the kids.
EVERYONE LOVES A PARADE. We had our annual Christmas parade on Cross Plains yesterday. It was a cold, cloudy day. I always laugh about the parade being longer than the town (it was by about a quarter mile), but it’s turning out to be a great community event. I think I heard someone say there was over 100 entries. There sure was plenty to see. We had enough floats to have a contest (the Cub Scouts won). Jenna and Nate rode with the children’s choir to promote their musical. Vicki walked the parade route handing out flyers.
Ben rode with the Cub Scouts. Their float was a huge improvement over riding in my old truck last year. A team of parents worked together to transform a lowboy trailer into a huge Radio Flyer wagon (the wheels were three feet tall). I had seen pictures of the float under construction and knew it would be big but was surprised to see it needed a semi to pull it. The float was really well done.
TOUR OF HOMES. Also in the mix of weekend activities was the annual tour of homes in the area. Vicki and I didn’t make any of the homes, but we, along with Jenna, hosted one of the locations on the tour (the Cross Plains Coffee Mill). This tour is a fund raiser for a local scholarship.
WORRIED ABOUT THE FUTURE. I’m sure all of us wondered about our futures when we were kids. I know I used to wonder who I would marry, if she’d be a local girl or from somewhere else. I remember being on vacation and wondered if I’d had a chance meeting with my future wife at the pool or the beach or something.
Nate had things like this on his mind the other day when he said to Vicki, “I’m scared about getting my driver’s license. I don’t know how to drive yet.” Vicki, trying to put his fears to rest, told him not to worry about that right now as he had plenty of time to learn. Fifteen minutes later he returns to express an additional concern: “I just don’t know who I’m going to marry!” She, of course, told him he had plenty of time before he needed to think about this as well. She went on to say, “All you need to worry about now is being the best five-year-old you can be.”
BLOG OF INTEREST. Lori Swann is on a business trip to Jerusalem. She left Tuesday and will return later this week. She is getting to do some sightseeing while there and has started a blog to record her experiences. If you’d like to read up on her adventures and impressions of the Holy Land you can do so at loriswann.wordpress.com.
Joe
